


The Vale Voices

by Stewbacca94



Series: RWBY Reddit Ramblings [31]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Music, Classical Music, Crush at First Sight, F/M, POV Second Person, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:08:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27253174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stewbacca94/pseuds/Stewbacca94
Summary: When you hear talk of a twelve-piece choir that's making waves at the university your uncle teaches at, the budding countertenor you are decides to see them in action on a calm spring evening. Here's what happens when you get there.
Relationships: Oscar Pine/Ruby Rose
Series: RWBY Reddit Ramblings [31]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1262834
Kudos: 9





	The Vale Voices

###  **The Vale Voices**

Dressed to the nines in mint green Versace and black loafers, you make your way to your seat in the Beacon Theater on the last night of October. Despite the type of musical fare on offer tonight, you notice walking down the aisles that the Vale University’s main performance venue is packed to the rafters; clearly, the reputation of tonight’s main event preceded itself.

As you crabwalk to your seat, you notice a handy little program for tonight’s event atop the cushion. Picking it up as you sit down, your eyes adjust to the light as you read about the Vale Voices. You find that the group harbours an even blend of twelve voices; two of each major category, barring the one you belong to. It doesn’t tell you anything else new, compared to what you’d heard before coming here tonight, at least, with the exception of their names.

You make a point of committing their names to memory; after all, you’re bound to show up on campus singing counter-tenor or studying classical composition next year anyway. It wouldn’t hurt to learn about future classmates a few months in advance. No sooner do you do that than the curtain rises to show the twelve singers in performance blacks, arranged in a wide semi-circle that arced around a trio of PZM mics that sat on the floor, lifting the sound to the furthest reaches of the theater.

On stage right, you spot a pair of short sopranos standing around the first mic with two blonde mezzo-sopranos, one pale and the other burly. Stage left plays host to a duo of contraltos, one dark haired and the other with auburn hair, along with a pair of tenors both blonde and tall. You’re briefly confounded by the strange stage arrangement, but you promptly realise that this allows the deeper voices to sit in the centre and anchor the group. Sure enough, the Korean and the Samoan basses stand dead centre, flanked by a Greek baritone next to the sopranos and an Irish baritone near the tenors.

As the dozen singers begin to weave their spell upon you, you realise that your uncle who leads Vale’s arts faculty wasn’t kidding about this latest group of students that managed to impress him.

They start with _Lux Aeterna_ , and while Elgar’s setting called for a few parts less than this choir offers, the extra voices makes no difference to the soul-scouring effect this piece always had on you. The first soprano, auburn-haired and petite, effortlessly hits those high Bb’s without screeching or overpowering the second soprano and mezzo-sopranos weaving their counter-melodies below it, let alone the powerful voices that give the piece much-needed ballast.

Throughout this, you notice that the dynamic style of this group is easily the best you’ve heard from a student choir. The softer sections carry themselves well in the theater, while the louder parts overwhelm you like a tidal wave. You feel chills in the last section of the song, coming from that last climax into the final utterance of the title, with the last chord of Db sounding more like a soft organ than a choir. You join the audience heartily in their applause, making a point of committing the name of Ruby Rose to your memory.

Through the course of the night’s entertainment, you are not disappointed. After stirring renditions of _Miserere mei Deus_ and an excerpt of Tchaikovksy’s _Hymn of the Cherubim_ , the choir proceed to split into two equal halves to sing four smaller works, with the first of each category singing _Down to the River to Pray_ and _Dessus le marche d’Arras_ first, and the second taking _Blackbird_ and _As Vesta was from Latmos Hill descending_ afterwards. Then the whole choir come together to sing _Flight of the Bumblebee_ together, and their comic acting make the performance worth watching as well as hearing.

Contemporary music comes next, and you find yourself surprised at what they manage to pull off. Whether it be Ellington’s smooth _Creole Love Call_ , Cole’s swinging _Straighten Up and Fly Right_ , or Mercury’s jaunty _Seaside Rendezvous_ , there is seemingly no limit to the expressiveness of this group. Even McCartney’s _Honey Pie_ gets an airing, with a surprisingly good Satchmo impression from the Korean first bass capping off a uniquely virtuostic performance.

But the best is yet to come with the final three songs. The first is _Masterpiece_ by Drayton, a six-part celebratory survey of orchestral music. Each part is in absolute lockstep, and the ten minutes of musical complexity serve to remind you of _why_ you became a musician in the first place.

Next is the traditional Irish tune, _Carrickfergus_. The pale mezzo-soprano comes forward at this point and leads the choir handily with her voice warbling like the Union pipes that normally accompany the piece, switching effortlessly between Gaelic and English whenever needed. At this moment, you barely notice the people around you as bliss surges through you. Hearing a group so well-rehearsed that every piece sounds effortless despite its complexity has bombarded you with a level of euphoria that you rarely experience, like Heaven itself was cradling your own mind.

The final song is Faure’s _Pie Jesu_ , bookending the concert with another excerpt from a requiem of some sort. And once again, Ruby Rose comes forward and leads the piece plaintively. She smiles as the Latin requiem rings from her mouth, her grey eyes gleaming under the lights. Your heart is captive to _something_ at this point, though whether it be the music or the woman leading the performance is getting e’er so hard to tell as the piece stirs everyone in the theater.

As the final notes ring out, you’re the first to stand up and applaud the group as they take their bows, introducing themselves at last as the Vale Voices. The applause continues for a few minutes afterwards, as your mind finds itself clear of worry. You float out of the building happy to have been alive for long enough to hear such a majestic, masterful display of music – like the world had sent you a reminder that the good things in life are worth living for.

You learn that it would not be the last time you beheld the Vale Voices, as you hear in passing outside the theater that their second contralto’s graduating soon and the group will need a replacement. Perhaps a budding countertenor who was on first-name terms with the faculty could stand a chance – whether that was with joining the group or dating the attractive, pure-voiced first soprano, you don’t care at this moment.

One thing is certain though; Vale University’s music program is going to be far more fun and enthralling that you ever imagined.

* * *

**A/N: A love letter to a capella music of all kinds. Also thought I'd try a second-person narrative for once, with a little Rose Garden sprinkled in for good measure.**

**Hope you enjoy it!**


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